egajd

24 May 2012

Learning about sex is weird

I watched this, by accident last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. WhenI turned to it, I didn't know anything about it, but quickly realizedthat it was a Canadian film. There is some weirdness in how Canadianssee sex/love, and this film captures that in spades. There is nothingclearly explicit, except for a couple of naked buttocks. However, thescenes of sexual exploration are invariably just slightly off centreand very funny. Does Sammy learn the difference between sex and love?The acting is excellent, and I enjoyed the quirky characters and pacingof the film. In typical Canadian fashion, the denouement is surprising,but ends hopefully. Sook-yin Lee, with the delightful Cristin Miliotias Sammy Smalls, makes this a gentle film with a crunchy satisfactionto it. A surprising delight.

MBunge

23 May 2012

Theres got to be a better use of Candadian tax revenue

The credits list 4 separate Canadian government agencies with helpingbring this motion picture to the screen. I know Canada has nationalhealth care, less crime and spends only slightly more on its nationalmilitary than the city of Detroit spends on its SWAT unit, but theremust have been a better use of taxpayer dollars than this boringnonsense. Installing free stripper poles in ever Canuck's bedroom?Doubling the size of the nation's emergency back bacon reserve?Increasing the minimum wage of Canadian actors so they don't all fleethe Great White North for exciting careers as waiters and valets in LAand New York City? Anything would have been better than wastingeveryone's time with Year of the Carnivore.Sammy (Cristin Milioti) is a quirky, indy flick heroine. It'sappropriate to describe her that way because she certainly isn't a realperson or even a close facsimile thereof. She's an undercover spy for agrocery store who disguises herself to catch shoplifters, as thoughthat job exists. She has a limp, except when the film comes to a pointwhere she jumps and dances all over her apartment. At that point herimpairment completely disappears. Sammy also has a crush on a streetmusician named Eugene (Mark Rendall), though it's not like there'sanyone else in the movie to whom she could possibly be attracted.Here's the plot. Sammy is so physically self-conscious she can't standfor Eugene to look at her naked body and she's so emotionally walledoff she bursts into ticklish laughter anytime he tries to touch her.This rightly frustrates Eugene and he storms off in a huff, spoutingoff a virtual word salad which Eugene, Sammy and the audience aresomehow supposed to take as a challenge for Sammy to go out and getreally good at sex by boinking as many people as possible. Like anepisode of Sports Night written by Aaron Sorkin, Sammy decides to gofor it and the rest of the film is filled up with her varyinglypathetic attempts at intercourse before Year of the Carnivore slumps toa happy ending.This thing couldn't be more artificially put together if the cast wasconstructed of Legos and Lincoln Logs and then stop motion animated.Sammy doesn't seem like a human being. Neither does Eugene, Sammy'shyperprotective mom (Shelia McCarthy), her sadsack dad (Kevin McDonald)or the screwed up neighbors across the way (Emily Holmes and PatrickGilmore) with which Sammy has an inexplicable threesome. Sammy'sgrocery store boss (Will Sasso) doesn't seem like a real person, butthat's okay because he does interesting things like beat the crap outof shoplifters and tries to spare the life of a rat caught in a snare.Sammy's co-worker (Ali Liebert) does seem like a living, breathing,genuine individual with motivations and an agenda that are bothbelievable and relatable. So she, of course, is reduced to nothing morethan Sammy's wise sounding board.Let me give you some other example of the fakery that pervades thisstory. Sammy can't bear to let Eugene look at her, but she then has noproblem at all dropping her pants in a public place and letting astranger try and mount her from behind. She's so self-conscious aboutintimacy that she laughs every time she's touched, but then she goes totown on herself with another woman's vibrator while lying in betweenthe fully awake twin infants she's babysitting. Eugene is introduced tothe audience playing what appears to be a ukulele and singing Russianfolk songs on the sidewalk near Sammy's store, but he quickly becomesthe lead guitarist of a rock band who skyrockets to local club stardom.I'm not saying that rock guitarists can't like other music, but I doubtthat Slash ever spent his off hours from Guns 'N Roses as a streetmusician doing Joan Baez covers.Instead of concentrating on entertaining or engaging her viewers,writer/director Sook-Yin Lee plays out a tangle of off beat hokum. IfYear of the Carnivore were consistently funny or at least tried to be,it wouldn't matter so much. Too much of this movie, though, is mundane.That can work with realism. It reeks when paired with mannered,pretentious pseudo-realism.

23 May 2012

Year of the Carnivore...

For me, this was one of those movies that I stumbled into while cable channel-surfing. It's funny, sad and it really does make you think. All she really wanted was to love a certain someone. However, facing rejection, her view is changed, and she goes through several changes before finding "herself" in a physical way. This is a person in whom many may be able to relate (in some form or fashion). I'm going to get a copy for myself to enjoy. Catch it on cable and decide for yourself, more good cinema from Canada!I rate "Year of the Carnivore"...4 stars!

22 May 2012

Another work of art from LEE

I will admit, One of the main reasons I wanted to see this movie was because of the buzz about it being one of the most sexually explicit movies ever made in the non-porn industry. I didn't really expect to find the movie interesting, I just wanted to see what everyone was talking about. The first minute or so was nothing but explicit sex and I almost turned the movie off thinking it was going to be pointless, that this was all there was to the movie, but I had nothing better to do so I kept watching. This movie is not porn, nor is it erotica. This movie IS an uncensored look at the truth about love and sex, and is probably one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is brutally honest, thought provoking, intense at times, and funny at others. These are characters that we can relate to, because they are real. I can not say enough positive things about this movie, it is art, it is truth, it is exceptional.

20 May 2012

A PLEASANT SURPRISE

This review is from: Year of the Carnivore (DVD) SAW THIS MOVIE ON DIRECT TV IN HD . I FOUND IT TO BE AN UNIQUE FUN MOVIE THAT NEVER SEEMED TO GO IN THE DIRECTION I THOUGHT IT WOULD . THE DVD PICTURE IS FINE , HOWEVER , IT DID LOOK BETTER IN HD . I BOUGHT IT AFTER SEEING IT FIRST , SO I WOULD RECOMEND IT .

larry-411

19 May 2012

Juno meets (a cleaner) Shortbus

I attended the World Premiere of "Year of the Carnivore" at the 2009Toronto International Film Festival. This deliciously decadent work canbe described as "Juno" meets "Shortbus," although it's certainly not asexplicit. Director Sook-Yin Lee was one of the stars of that latterfilm and is somewhat of an icon in her native Canada. The film rests onthe capable shoulders of lead actress Cristin Milioti, a relativeunknown, and her co-star Mark Rendall, a terrific budding characteractor who has been in several of my favorite festival films of the pastfew years.What do we really know about sex, when do we learn it, and how do welearn it? That sums up "Year of the Carnivore" and, as Ms. Leeexplained eloquently in the Q&A, are questions she still asks herself.It's a quirky love story which is surely, more than anything, ashowcase for the broad talents of Sook-Yin Lee, who wrote the script,directed, and composed much of the soundtrack's music.